NTT raises stakes in IDC bid

CBS.MarketWatch.com

TOKYO (CBS.MW) -- Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. has raised the stakes in a takeover battle with the U.K.?s Cable & Wireless Plc, with a sweeter bid for International Digital Communications Inc., a Japanese phone company.

NTT
NTT, -3.67%
has offered IDC?s 141 shareholders 108,974 yen per share, upping an original offer of around 105,700 yen, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan?s leading business paper, reported Tuesday.

NTT?s new bid, following discussions with IDC shareholders, comes just five days before the latest tender by C&W
CWP, +0.00%
expires on Saturday.

C&W, one of the founding shareholders in IDC with a 17.7 percent stake in the company already, had already raised its bid once to 107,372 yen per share, which values IDC at 67 billion yen. NTT?s new bid values the company at 68 billion yen.

Even before NTT?s move, IDC management had indicated a preference for being acquired by Japan?s dominant domestic carrier. But the NTT bid suggests that C&W?s offer had enough backing from IDC shareholders to force NTT to sweeten its offer.

As one of IDC?s founding shareholders, C&W has the right to match any offer by a third party to acquire the company, and it has said it would exercise that right. Although C&W?s latest bid was tendered for the whole of IDC, increasing its stake to 33.4 percent would be sufficient to allow C&W to block key management decisions.

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